Optothermal evolution of active colloidal matter in defocused laser trap

TL;DR

This paper explores how defocused laser traps induce optothermal effects in active colloids, leading to dynamic, reconfigurable assemblies whose structure can be modulated by optical polarization, advancing understanding of active matter behavior.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method using defocused laser traps to create self-evolving active colloidal assemblies with controllable structures and dynamics.

Findings

Long-range attraction and short-range repulsion between colloids due to thermophoretic effects

Formation of re-configurable, dynamic colloidal assemblies

Optical polarization modulates structural orientation of active colloids

Abstract

Optothermal interaction of active colloidal matter can facilitate environmental cues which can influence the dynamics of active soft matter systems. The optically induced thermal effect can be harnessed to study non-equilibrium thermodynamics as well as applied to self-propel colloids and form assemblies. In this work, we employ a defocused laser trap to form self-evolving colloidal active matter. The optothermal interaction of the active colloids in both focused and defocused optical trap has been investigated to ascertain their thermophoretic behavior, which shows a long-range attraction and a short-range repulsion between the colloids. The optical gradient field enabled attraction and the short-range repulsion between the active colloids have been harnessed to form re-configurable dynamic assembly. Additionally, the assembly undergoes self-evolution as a new colloid joins the structure. Further, we show that the incident polarization state of the optical field can be employed as a parameter to modulate the structural orientation of the active colloids. The simple defocused optical field-enabled assembly can serve as a model to understand the collective dynamics of active matter systems, and can be harnessed as re-configurable microscopic engine.